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Jan 15, 2016

Hindu Lit for Life: Glimpses and thoughts from Day 1

I have been attending the Hindu Lit for Life Festival since its inception in 2010 and every year it has been growing in stature and quality content. This festival has inspired many of us to take the plunge and follow one's heart and passion. In year 2014, one of the panelist Naresh Fernandes said about how to get one's book published, "Write the damn book" and I took that cue and finally finished writing my 3 part The Monk Key Series and published the book 1 - Songs of the Mist. So this Hindu Lit Festival has been my staple annual diet of creativity, inspiration and perseverance. And as usual, I am going to write about it day by day and here are the glimpses as well some interesting thoughts from panelist on the Day 1. Hope you will like it...

To begin with Ex-Chief Minister, Sh. Omar Abdullah in his keynote address "My Kashmir" was at his articulate best and I enjoyed his beautiful presentation, that cleared so many doubts and confusions I have had about the political situation of J & K. Here are some of his thoughts from the session...

"I am more hopeful and then Optimist" about Kashmir situation in answer to N Ram of Hindu

"I never answer a hypothetical question with a categorical answer."

"Kashmiri pandits left because they felt unsafe and not because of Article370"

- Omar Abdullah in Keynote address “My Kashmir”

Mix of music and the passion for Cricket came out beautifully in the session of Sanjay Subrahmanyan, full of fun and creativity... For the first time, as he said, he sung without accompaniment of musical instrument.

“Knowledge of the language and lyrics increases the musicality of a creation“

"Music is something that you can do what you want to with it, in your own way. Don't worry about the purists!"

Sanjay Subrahmanyan in discussion “Sing my Song”

Raghu Rai spoke from heart and connected with audience like some one, close to one's own heart...

"I have not seen God. But He must be like His Holiness Dalai Lama "

“Drishya (Scene) is what everyone sees but when you are completely connected with whole of your awareness and observe something some one, you have a Darshan (In Presence of whole).”

"The brain is the biggest computer. We can increase our memory. But for creativity, brain is the biggest block, one must look from heart."

"I learnt about life and nature, click by click,"

- Raghu Rai in discussion “Picturing Time”

Well Devdutt Pattanaik was on fire today. In the two session he took on the formidable moderators like N Ram and an eager audience, looking for the chinks in his mythological armour. Here are some very interesting thoughts from his two discussions...

"Science deals with fact, measurement and evidence. It doesn't deal with truth. Religion deals with truth."

“The primary tension in India is between the hermit and the householder.”

"I am yet to see a case when I tell a stupid man he's stupid, he reforms,"

- Devdutt Pattanaik in discussion“My Gita” and “The use and abuse of Religion”

After the session, one our Sans Serif book club member Devika Anand, reached out for her staple diet of reading with signature style Devdutt Patnaik. It was interesting to see her, living the moment and her sheer enthusiasm was contagious.

Our Sans Serif Book Club member Devika Anand

And I took the cue and reached out to the famous author Timeri N Murari, who has written the introduction of my book "Songs of the Mist" and got a picture taken...

Timeri N Murari and me...

Finally from the beautiful regular feature of Hindu Lit Festival - The Opinion Tree, where hangs one opinion from my book "Songs of the Mist"...

"Some times things that don't happen, keep disasters from happening too." - Ashutosh in the book "Songs of the Mist".

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Writes Poetry, Haiku, Spiritual Fiction, most of the times about Spiritual and blissful living. He enjoys spiritual journeys across India / High on Himalayas or floating below in depths Ganges, on a self-exploration trip, all the while trying to work out that elusive enlightenment, which every one talks about but, most of the times, don't find.

... and he ends up writing about these experiences at his blog "Shadow Dancing With Mind", which is considered to be India's #1 Spiritual Blog (last three years) and has been listed #36 in top 50 spiritual blogs of the Planet this year.

MY BOOK - 1 OF 'THE MONK KEY' 3 PART SERIES

Songs of the Mist

SONGS OF THE MIST - An Introduction

"Many of us here yearn for something more in our life. Shashi has provided a spiritual release in his beautiful book, "Songs of the Mist". It’s unusual and thought provoking book. The book answers questions that we struggle to frame in our daily lives. Shashi’s descriptive beauty of the mystic nature of Himalayas interwoven with sufferings and the heartaches, and the struggle of each protagonist, provide eloquent and thought provoking read. Not a book to be browsed at glance and to reach books full potential demands commitment and investment of time to savor its subtlety and do grows." - Timeri N Murari (Famous Author, Script Writer and Journalist) speaking about “Songs of the Mist” at an evening of Art, Music and Writing organised by Apparao Galleries at The Hotel Leela Palace